Gia Pyrlis made a somewhat dramatic career change ten years ago, from teacher to health professional.
Her business, Gia Pyrlis: therapist for your health and wellbeing, began after Pyrlis was diagnosed with cancer in 1996.
“After that I decided to go on a journey to find out things about myself and it lead me to this path,” she says. “I work with people who are overcoming illness in general, I’m very compassionate towards loved ones and people experiencing cancer”.
As part of practice Body Edge in Adelaide’s Henley Beach Road, Mile End, which includes a podiatrist and two physiotherapists, Pyrlis works as a counsellor, bodyworker, and a health educator.
Starting off as a massage therapist, Pyrlis studied a Masters in Social Science before she started counselling. Having just being accepted to study naturopathy through a Bachelor of Health Science, Pyrlis will extend her business to cover nutritional requirements.
“In the last few years I’ve been really interested in nutritional and environmental medicine,” Pyrlis says. “I see a huge connection between body, mind and what we put in our mouths.
For example, I have clients that come in with constant headaches, muscle spasms, insomnia, agitation, anxiety and I now know that their body is lacking in magnesium,” she says.
“I want to help my clients to eat better and take appropriate supplements because, living in the city, it doesn’t matter how well you eat, you will be affected by the environment and pollution. The closer to the beach you are, the healthier you would be because of the iodine and the salt water.”
Many health problems are a result of increased time spent indoors, working in offices, which can lead to vitamin D deficiency, Pyrlis says.
“Depletion of iodine and vitamin D puts people at high risk of autoimmune disease and cancers”.
Pyrlis’ bodyworks includes therapeutic remedial massage.
“I work with people who have got pains, aches and I’m really good with the back and shoulders, headaches; I relieve people’s headaches really quickly”.
Pyrlis also incorporates energy work into her profession, which she says is now becoming scientifically proven to help particularly those with cancer and the elderly.
“I use therapeutic touch therapy so people don’t have to have their clothing off, it’s just relaxing them and fanning out their energy fields,” she says.
“It gets congested if we’re always thinking then we’re not balanced on our feet, so I have a technique where I can bring them to a grounded space.”
Exercise is another major part of maintaining good health, Pyrlis says.
“The majority of my clients are between 30 and 70 years old and the majority come for back, headaches and stress. There’s a huge amount of stress,” she says.
High expectations continue to increase stress levels, Pyrlis said.
“We need to go back to basics, go back to simpler living; the simpler we live our lives the healthier we can be. If we slow down we can grow our own vegies, have organic stuff, go to an exercise class, meditate, but if we rush all the time we skip breakfast which will impact on our body and our mind.
If we work long hours we’re not going to have enough sleep, so we’ll probably have insomnia. It all links.”
